An exercise in futility: A refusal to let gyms open will devastate thousands of workers

To add insult to injury, Congress inexplicably left much of the fitness industry unable to participate in the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”). While some clubs did qualify for PPP, a large segment of the industry did not, due to the large number of part-time employees on our payrolls (up to 70%), similar to restaurants. However, unlike restaurants who were granted an exception under PPP that allowed them to only count employees per location, gyms and clubs were stuck counting all employees from all locations and with so many part-time workers many regional clubs exceeded the SBA’s employee cap and did not qualify.